A Final Flurry Of Activities

It has been a busy week with Memorial Day and change of command, but a little fun was had too.
Fallen Soldier Memorial

Here are pictures of the fallen soldier memorial. It was presented to Camp Phoenix on Memorial day. Each of the plaques inside this case represents a soldier who paid the ultimate price for freedom. 7 soldiers died under Oregon's command. 4 from Oregon and 3 from Oklahoma. General Pritt on the left and Command Sargent Major Conley, (both from Oregon), read each of the soldiers names during the ceremony. The case was placed in the chow hall and is the 5th of such cases placed around the building.

This is 1st Lt. Dennis Stahlnecker. He is a Chaplin from Oregon. He gave the opening prayer for the ceremony. It was a very touching moment.

Specialist Gary Huddleston, the builder of the memorial and one of my buddies over here. From southern Oregon. He ran the wood shop. He had spent a lot of time and effort on this and should be rightly proud of the job he has done. He helped and gave great suggestions on many of my Battle Field Furniture projects. A good man and a good friend.

If I learn to fly, he has a plane to sell as well. Honey?

Change of Command ceremony from Oregon to South Carolina.

Patriot Plaza :
Area outside the chow hall is where we had out change of command ceremony. Most of Oregon has left, but a good representation was still there. We also had soldiers from the ANA and theater command. You can see ANA and ANP personnel in the foreground before the formal start of the ceremony. Soldiers in the background in formation.

ANP in the blue uniforms.

General Pritt giving his address under the flags. The man behind him is a terp and would repeat the generals words for the local soldiers and policemen.

Flag raising ceremony on Memorial Day.

It took all day to get it done, but wow it was amazingly cool to see the colors fly. Some of the soldiers from the TMC put together a honor guard team. Each of them had done it before but in their services style. Each brought that style to the ceremony and made it something very special to behold. Chris sent some flags over specifically to be flown on Memorial Day. The entire ceremony was silent and incredibly honoring to all fallen soldiers.

We had to get permission to lower one of the existing colors in order to fly ours. Good thing about it was that we were able to do it later in the day after the heat of the day and some cloud rolled in. Bill also recorded the ceremony on video.

D-Lo and Morin folding of the colors after flying one of the flags.

All of us in this picture. I'm the guy in the foreground with no hair. In the background you can see the 41st BCT symbol on the wall.

The team: Left to Right

Me

Wilfredo F Delos Reyes Jr. "D-lo"

Kathleen J. Lavender "Kat"

Blair Morin

Off camera is William (Bill) Stutts

There professionalism was incredible. They made the ceremony so wonderful and truly memorable. It made the day a standout and brought the true meaning of Memorial Day.

Weapons Test Firing Day

A day of Testosterone at the foreign weapons test firing range.

Russian 50 cal, loud and pretty good but jammed a lot. Have video I can show you when I get home of me firing it at a target about 500 m out.

All of the toys to be test fired that day. They have been repaired by Afghan armors. We let them take the first shots, just in case. There were U.S, Canadian and Polish troops out there firing.

I missed the shot of them fixing the weapons with hammers. Notice the baseball cap?

This is the first of the AK47's I got to shoot. Notice the modified weapon stock. It had a bayonet on the end at first. I guess you could use it to dig a hole for a fighting position, then use it to defend yourself. It fires the 30.06 or 7.62mm round.

I look pretty cool all armed up with an AK, M-4 and 9mm. Do you think I put fear in the enemies hearts?











Thanks again for tuning in to my little adventure. It has been a good experience, and one I hope you have come to understand a little more about. It is almost time to leave. It is a little sad, but I won't be looking back. I can hardly wait to get home and spend time with Chris, Caitlin and Luke.

Take care, god bless.

mike